Washougal School District works closely with CCPH any time someone who has tested positive for COVID-19 has been on a campus during a time they were potentially contagious.  The health department provides guidance for those who test positive asking them to isolate for a period of time based on the likely date they became infected.  Individuals are asked not to leave home except to seek medical care, and not to attend school, go to work, or participate in social gatherings.

Washougal School District notifies families of students, and staff, when there is a confirmed positive COVID-19 case reported at a school site, after contract tracing is completed.  The notice goes out to all contacts for the school, regardless of whether the family is participating in-person.

Definitions:

• Close contact:  within 6 feet of an infected person for a cumulative total of 15 minutes or more over a 24-hour period* starting from 2 days before symptom onset in the infected person, (or, for asymptomatic persons, 2 days prior to test specimen collection).  For the 2021-2022 School Year, student close contacts are defined using a three foot rule instead of a six foot rule.

• Quarantine: A close contact to a confirmed positive case needs to quarantine at home for 14 days. Contact does not leave the house except for medical care.  Quarantine separates and restricts the movement of people who were exposed to a contagious disease to prevent them from exposing non-infected persons if they become sick. (CDC: https://www.cdc.gov/quarantine/)

• Isolation:  Separates sick people with a contagious disease from people who are not sick.  Isolation will usually last for ten days after symptom onset; AND at least 24 hours have passed with no fever without fever-reducing medication; AND symptoms have improved* (*Loss of taste and smell may persist for weeks or months after recovery and need not delay the end of isolation)

• Contagious Period: 2 days prior to symptom onset (or 2 days prior to date positive test was performed if no symptoms) to 10 days after onset of symptoms at least 24 hours have passed with no fever without fever-reducing medication; AND symptoms have improved (or date positive test was performed if no symptoms).

• Incubation Period: A period of 2 to 14 days after exposure to COVID-19 during which time the exposed person can become contagious if they were infected by the exposure  (This is why close contacts are advised to quarantine the full 14 days regardless of a negative lab test).

• Presumed positive: An individual who has known exposure to a confirmed case, and who has symptoms consistent with COVID-19, and who is asked by a medical professional to isolate as if they are positive even without a confirmed test.
• Outbreak: two or more laboratory-positive COVID-19 cases among students or staff, where the cases have begun within 14 days of each other, and the cases are epidemiologically linked in the school setting, and where the two individuals do not share a household and are not close contacts in another non-school setting.